Sleep Issues - Again?!

Question

Hi all
I am at a loss, and am honestly looking for any advice at all. My almost 3 year old cannot go to sleep without me sat next to her bed. This can take some time for her to eventually fall asleep. And lately she wakes in the night, and I have to sit next to her bed again until she falls asleep. The trouble is this can be 1-3 hours. I am heavily pregnant (due in Sept) and I am so worried about how I will manage. Has anyone got any ways of breaking this with her because I am exhausted as it is, and about to throw a newborn into the mix gives me such massive amounts of anxiety:(
Thank you in advance

Answer

Do you use a timer ever? I’m kind of mean but I don’t enjoy laying with my 3yo for bed but he will ask for it. I set like a 3 min timer and then he knows I leave when it’s off and he doesn’t protest. 
If you don’t se a timer it might take a while for her to accept it. I’d do like a 20min timer for a few nights, then 15, 10 ect… but you’d have to stick to it whether she cries or screams. The few hard days of her understanding that will pay off in the end!!! 
Now I’ve never done this but I love thinking of strategies to try!

Answer

I’m also very pregnant, due September 2. We moved to a new house on June 3…before moving she would fall asleep without us in the room and would only wake up in the night from time to time. When we moved it went back to her not falling asleep without us laying in bed with her and a meltdown if we tried to leave before she was asleep and then she was waking up daily around 5-530 our first month or so here. We haven’t had any getting out of bed issues but for the getting up early fix we used - might work for you. She has a hatch sound machine and I set the wake hours to start at 6:45 AM. So her sleep light is purple and she knows she can’t get out of bed until her light is green - this did NOT work right away but we just kept reinforcing it and reminding her “if you wake up and your light is purple you have to stay in bed until it’s green” then lots and lots of praise when she did stay in bed until green! 
For the leaving before she’s asleep, I did the same routine as normal - we sing a song and pray and send good vibes - then I would say I had to go potty or go check on the dogs and I would say, I’ll be back don’t get up - I’ll leave your door open so you know im coming back but you can close your eyes and try to sleep, don’t get out of bed…. She would always fall Asleep in less than 5 minutes then I would go back and shut her door - after a few nights of that I would tell her mommy is going to go now and you’re going to go to bed so you want me to leave your door cracked or shut it and let her choose. And now we are back to being able to leave the room with her awake!

Sleep Issues - Again?!

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